Painting Maristela the Van

When my friend asked me if I wanted to paint his van Maristela, there was no way I was going to say no. I had complete freedom to draw whatever I felt like and use whichever colours I wanted. The owner of the van only wanted to see the end result so that it was a pure, unedited work of art. This was the result 😁.

Using vinyl was far too expensive, and I'm useless with a spray can, so the alternative was to grab a paintbrush, and hand paint the van. The biggest challenge was trying to figure out which type of paint to use. I did a lot of research online, and asked a lot of people who deal with paints and vehicles, and everyone seemed to have a different opinion. In the end, the folks at the Resene Colour shop thought that using water based exterior paints should stick, as long as I primed areas I would paint over first.

The project took about 3 weekends to complete.

Special thanks to my amazing partner Sam Bunny for all his help and support on this project and to the following friends: Miles, Robyn, and Anna Illemann for allowing us to use their garage over three weekends and feeding us between paint coats, Xavier Martin for lending us his dodgy yet super useful projector, and of course, Bruno Isaú Pedrosa for letting me tattoo his van in the first place ✌️​​​​.

The Hills Have Tongues

When I began this project, I had no real idea of what I wanted to build. I thought I could create some interesting chess pieces or something... Although I'm not even sure I know how to play chess. Instead, I began to imagine a world filled with hills, and bubbles and bridges and platforms on which I could run and slide and climb and bounce on, inhabited by animated mushrooms, long tongued 'Pistachios', milk splashed critters, and sharp-teeth, hooded bears.

This was the final result; a living playground, which grew, and transformed, and narrated its own stories, a product of my imagination and its whereabouts at the time.

Beasts of New Zealand

Beasts of New Zealand is a project that began to manifest in my mind whilst traveling the country.

A mixture of picturesque, mysterious, and out of this world landscapes served as the inspiration for the project, as I began to imagine alternate reasons for the creation of these surreal environments, and weather patterns.

I’m pretty sure I was also influenced by years of watching and playing Pokemon 😅.

I completed the project during #inktober, which was great because the challenge didn't have any set rules, and I could participate without following common Halloween themes, prompts, or even using traditional ink! It was a great way to stay motivated and ensure the project didn't lapse, and it helped knowing that there were other people working on their own illustrations late at night!

TLDR:This project re-imagines a surreal, alternate cause/reason behind some of New Zealand's landscapes and weather patterns. Illustrations were done using Procreate on an iPad Pro, as part of the #inktober challenge.

36 Days of Type 04 - Characters

3x3 2018 Awards:Self Promotion: MeritAnimation: Merit

I decided to take on the 36 Days of Type challenge on Instagram, using the experience to develop and expand my character design skills.

My aim was to create a variety of 'characters' using typography's most basic and recognisable forms as a starting point, expanding on this almost to the point where it barely resembled a letter or number, focusing instead on the character itself, its personality and the story it told.

Though it was sometimes a challenge to avoid clichés and obvious choices, I believe the discipline of doing so pushed me to create some pretty unique visuals, to explore my illustrative style, and develop my overall creative and problem solving skills.

You can purchase prints, phone cases, t-shirts and home decor with some of the artwork seen here from Society6 😊! If you would like a particular print, feel free to contact me as well 🙂.

No Road Markings

No Road Markings is an ongoing series of installations aimed to manipulate and convert everyday objects and environments into creative works of art.

Driven by simple curiosity and a bit of self indulgence, this project is an exploration of ideas and materials, an extension of my existing art, and a way to bring about a different perspective to familiar surroundings.

And, of course, it's all about having fun, and creating whatever comes to mind without having to consider briefs and timelines, or how loud the music is playing.

1. Let’s Go Surfing Instead:

This was the first project in the No Road Markings series, and my personal favourite.

The idea behind the work was to disrupt the perception of a common object in a playful way, creating an alternate reality within our own.

TLDR: it's a skatepark, on a skateboard, in a skatepark.

2. Roadworks Ahead:

Inspired by platformer videogames, as well as the simple desire to steal a traffic cone, the installation is a play on object and environment manipulation, and a different interpretation of some of the worlds and characters that live in my head.

3. Candy Coloured Cactus Juice

This installation was my end of my year student show exhibit.

A song emitting from what seemed like a regular refrigerator on the outside, acted as an incentive for viewers to open its doors. Those curious enough to do so, were met with an explosion of colour, as a world of characters skiing and snowboarding and going about their business were suddenly revealed.

A song and animation describing the world of 'Os Pequeninos' played on a loop inside the freezer, where characters sat and watched themselves on screen.

The looping audio in the animation drove the staff slightly insane.

4. Half Time

In an attempt to decorate a skate deck that stood out against the norm, and as a tribute to 'the beautiful game', I created this. I was frustrated, and inspired, after having a second ACL reconstruction and being unable to play football, or skate.

Duds & Doodles

I spend a lot of my time doodling. On my leg whilst on the phone, on tables, on skateboards, discarded objects, and of course, on the computer.

My illustrations are usually filled with dorky little characters, going about their day, sometimes upon floating landscapes made out of clouds, mushrooms, and bandaids, sometimes in cities made of teapots, shoes, and balloons.

I'm greatly inspired by platform style video games, especially the Super Mario and Little Big Planet series, as well as Japanese manga and anime, graffiti, interactive, street, and installation art. I also love flying bicycles and airborne pirate ships.

36 Days of Type 05 - Landscapes (and Characters)

I decided to tackle the 36 Days of Type challenge on Instagram once again, this time in an attempt to develop my landscape drawing skills, which I know isn't my forte.

The aim remained the same as last time - to use typography as a starting point from which to develop a world or landscape, evolving it enough to separate it from its original form.

I found that in the end, I'm not that bad at developing landscapes, I just don't enjoy it that much! It was only when I began to introduce characters more heavily into these landscapes and worlds that I started to have more fun with the work. It made it easier for me to develop stories about the work, and describe the scenes and why they looked the way they did.

I also recorded every single letter I did, in an attempt to show my creative process, and how something as established as a letter form can evolve into a completely different work of art. This was also an interesting process as it recorded my colour choices, ideas that spurred from mistakes, and often the struggle and indecisions I faced whilst working with certain letters or numbers.

Blowholes

Blowholes painting - just having a little fun with floating whales and colourful goo.

Table Manners

When I found this small, helpless, discarded table on the side of the road, I knew I had to take it home.

After a poor attempt at mending its broken leg with a bandaid, I thought its spirits could be raised with a bit of colour, the results which you can see here.

For a long time, the table stayed with me, but eventually, the time came to let it go back into the world.

Alas, I bid farewell to my small furniture friend, which was sold on Trade-me ❤️.

Slo Motion Inc.

Slo Motion Inc. is a group of travelling misfits who craft their vehicles from their own household items, pets, floating devices, and nicknacks.

Wildlings

As a kid living in South America, there were quite a few things to be afraid of - snakes, spiders, and even the neighbour’s pet monkey. But beyond that, tales told of mythical creatures and dark religions sometimes haunted me at night. This work is an interpretation of those fears, a metaphor of the ‘chupacabra’, ‘macumba’, and even the ‘diabo’ itself.

Super Sayan Superfoods

Fun project in which I took some of the best well known Sayan characters from the Dragon Ball series, and illustrated them as part of the foods their names represent.

Raditz and his radishes is my favourite <3

Small Plates

Small Plates was a series of four digital illustrations for Matchbox's 'Animals' Exhibition in Wellington, New Zealand